Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Resolving Infidelity To Keep A Relationship Strong

By John S Laney

Infidelity causes more break ups than just about any other reason. If you are dealing with infidelity in your relationship, it can feel like a bomb has gone off in your hearts. "I can never trust him/her again" is one of the strongest responses.

Love and trust are very closely connected. It is hard to have one without the other. So when the trust has been broken by infidelity, we may both feel like there is little hope for getting it back again. No matter how much we loved our partner, the betrayal damaged the core of our intimacy.

So in order for the relationship to continue, trust needs to be restored. Fortunately, it can be, and it can start to happen in just minutes. Here's how:

A Deep Apology. There are different kinds of apologies, and almost no one understands this. There are surface apologies, where you say Im sorry almost because it is expected. There are sincere apologies, where you really mean it. And then there are what could be called Deep or True Apologies.

To begin to restore the trust in your relationship, a deep apology is required. Deep apologies are much more that just saying I'm sorry, even if you really mean it.

Deep Apologies involve several different steps. One step is to accept blame for what you did, and another important step is to mirror the emotional pain or damage you caused your mate by cheating on them. I think I made you feel ashamed and broken-hearted is a mirroring statement that helps your mate feel deeply understood.

There are some other things you need to do for a deep apology. However, don't just say "I'm sorry" and expect trust to be restored. It doesn't work that way. And, a good deep apology involves listening to your mate as much as speaking.

If you are the one who was cheated on, and you want to get past the infidelity, there are also ways you can ask your mate to fess up and tell you how they think it made you feel. This will help you begin to let go of the hurt feelings. Again, there is more to all of this, but you can get past infidelity and save your relationship or marriage if you use some Emotional Intelligence to help restore the broken trust. - 15431

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